More than 3,600 people attended the RentDirect Nationwide PrimeTime! Vendor Show in Nashville, TN this week. With over 900 member companies and 190 vendors in attendance, this year’s show had the biggest turnout in Nationwide history.
Over 100 rental dealers gathered in the Town Hall and received an industry review presented by Jerry Epperson followed by a town hall meeting with six furniture and bedding manufacturers. The review covered industry trends and forecasts that membership is expected to continue in growth for the reminder of 2016. Furniture remains the fastest growing industry with multiple storefronts and of the new members this year, over a third are in furniture and bedding. In total, Nationwide’s membership accounts for 10,000 storefronts with 15B buying power in both North America and Canada.
Highlights of this year’s PrimeTime! show was a legal update presented by APRO General Counsel, Ed Winn III that covered politics in RTO such as the Delaney bill, new wage and hour rules, new state RTO laws, mattress recycling council, taxability of “other charges”, The Telephone Consumer Protection Act and collection calls, RTO puppies, RTO issues in kiosks and on the internet and new rules for anchoring dressers.
Another highlight at PrimeTime! was the “Beat the Clock” event. Over 300 members met with 22 participating vendors in the exhibit hall to get unbeatable deals. Some vendors completely sold out of products in only five minutes while hundreds of products were sold across the floor in a short amount of time.
Lastly, this year’s Hot Show represented more than 100 rental companies with record purchases for a RentDirect Nationwide Fall PrimeTime! Vendor Show. “Show attendance for RTO was up over our March PrimeTime in Orlando, and purchases were more robust than previous shows,” said Nationwide’s Senior Vice President of Member Development, James MacAlpine.
He felt this increase was the result of lower inventory levels and a cautious optimism by the independent RTO channel. “One reason the independent RTO channel seems to be outperforming the national chains is because they’ve remained focused on the basics of the original RTO model,” added MacAlpine.
To see more photos of show click here. 
Mike Lewis
Mike Lewis is a Premier Rental Purchase franchisee with multiple stores and currently serves as Vice President of Operations. With 33 years of experience in the rent-to-own industry, he has spent the past 20 years working closely with franchisee owners and previously spent 12 years in Corporate RTO, gaining a strong foundation in the business.
For the past five years, Mike has been sharing his knowledge by teaching managers and franchisees at the company’s Training Center.
Outside of work, he enjoys time with his family, kids, and grandkids, and appreciates the simple things in life – especially riding his Harley Davidson with the sun on his face. If you know, you know!
